Purple Leaf 9ft Platio Umbrella

Like the title says, I almost cancelled my order because I honestly believed that we were not going to receive our umbrellas! Let's start from the beginning. We live in the south (Texas) and it can get HOT. What better way to beat the sun than with a pool? But what if that pool is in the sun all day? Let's solve that with a sun shade! Never mind that, those are terrible. UMBRELLAS THEN! We located Purple Leaf on Amazon and I found them to be quite impressive. I really liked the base design and the sheer weight of the base was noted (300 something lbs when loaded). I have seen umbrellas take flight and I wanted something truly sturdy. The umbrella itself looked great, heavy shade material, and they were in-stock! KIND OF... This is where it gets complicated... We ordered the Umbrellas, noticed that they were in-stock, and had prime available. Great! *FOUR WEEKS LATER* - Where is my SHADE?! It's been 100+ for a few days to be fully transparent. So I called Amazon. I was fully convinced that we were never going to receive our umbrellas. They were in forever 'pending shipping' / 'we will let you know mode'. So again, I called. Nice guy on the phone who stated that he understood why we were going to cancel... (nice conversation and we had confirmation of a cancelled order and pending refund) or so I thought... 24 hours later, I get a confirmation that my order was shipped.. What the fudge... Did I still want them? Was Amazon making me get them? Is it life's goal I now have these umbrellas?! Jeff saw my order and made it fulfilled?! 48 hours later, I had TWO large umbrellas. There they were. Just weeks late. I wondered, if I never made the call, 'would they have shipped?!'... That was irrelevant now. Setup: Setup was SUPER easy. You have to order the bases separately and it might be a pain to do so, but whatever, it's there thing. I ordered the: 'PURPLE LEAF Offset Umbrella Base Cantilever Umbrella Base, 32.3'' X 32.3''" Back to setup. The bases are all put together in a large box, clearly labeled and all you have to do is figure out where you want your base and remove the plastic packaging. Super simple. The base looks tough (very hard plastic) and does not appear it will fail. The ports for water & sand installment are on top of the base and are easily located. I purchased the Purple Leaf beige 10 x 12 umbrella and it arrived in a huge box. It was heavy in an awkward way. No high deal, carried it in with my wife and we got to opening the box. Oh how thankful we were when we noticed that they entire thing was assembled! just some plastic on the outside as a cover and then the inside. We did notice that it came with a heavy mounting base that secured to the above base. Good design. I now see why this thing costs so much. I went to my local Home Depot and purchased 200lbs of play sand. I wasn't going to break the bank on this one; each 50lb bag was 5.97 lol. I bought all the necessary sand and brought it home. I learned quick of the method... Open the base port WITHOUT the umbrella installed and begin filling sand. Then after some time, lift up the base so you can make the sand even. Do this a few times until each unit has consumed it's 50lbs of sand. Then add water. THEN attach the umbrella. Method to the madness. End: Once your base is heavy, install the umbrella. We opened the umbrella immediately and noticed that the base would not move; it had to weigh 300lbs or so with the water. Conclusion: They are worth every dime. They are mega umbrellas. I hated the wait. I was sure I was going to be umbrella-less forever. But now we have shade. The setup is easy. The material is great super heavy fabric (like an intense duffle bag material or better) and the crank system works like a charm. Would I buy them again? Yes. TL;DR: Wait is bad. Texas is hot. Umbrellas are good. Beer is best in shaded pool.